PRAYERS FOR THE LIGHTING
OF ADVENT CANDLES
Jennifer
Phillips
An
Advent wreath is customarily a circle of greens, sometimes with berries and
blue or purple and pink ribbons, with four candles around the circumference.
These may be all white, or three purple and one pink (for Rose Sunday, the
third Sunday of Advent - which is traditionally dedicated to Mary – but now
sometimes observed on Advent 4 when the Marian Gospel story is read in the
Revised Common Lectionary). Each Sunday, a new candle is lit, with a prayer,
until all are burning. A fourth white Christ-candle may be put in the center
and lit on Christmas Eve. The Scripture lessons for the Sunday may be read as
candles are lit by the gathered household. If your candles burn too low, it’s
fine to replace them, and don’t let the greens dry out and become a fire hazard.
You can use votive lights in glass, tapers, or columns in the wreath - if the
candles are big enough, you might burn them during a Sunday family meal. There
is another set of prayers for a wreath in the Book of Occasional Services
available from Church Publishing Inc.
Prayers
for use with an Advent wreath:
I.
Come,
O Holy One,
as the morning light after a wakeful night!
Keep
us mindful that at any moment you may ask of us
an
accounting of our lives;
help
us to love you and love one another in all we do,
and
so clothe us with your light
that
we may bring others to love you also,
through
Jesus our Savior. Amen.
II.
Come,
O Holy One,
as the water of life and refiner's fire!
Strengthen
us with courage for your work of justice
that
in all the creation and among every people
your
peace may be established
and
your joy abound,
through
Jesus our Deliverer. Amen.
III.
Come,
O Holy One,
breaker of chains and renewer of life!
Open
our eyes to your presence in all the earth.
Stir
us to proclaim gladly the signs of your love:
the
liberation of those oppressed,
the
healing of those frail and broken,
springs
of water in all the parched places,
and
Jesus Christ risen and alive, through whom we pray. Amen.
IV.
Come,
O Holy One, as the beloved child, Emmanuel!
Soften
our hearts and open our arms for your
coming
that
we may make this a place worthy and warm,
kindly
and safe for all your children,
in
the name of Jesus. Amen.
FOR
THE OPENING OF GIFTS or Christmas Eve
Glory
to you, Giver of all good gifts!
We
offer you glad thanks and praise
for
every blessing from your love,
and
especially for the best gift of yourself
in
the child Jesus. Amen.
Jennifer M. Phillips, an Episcopal priest, is Rector of St. Francis Church,
Rio Rancho, NM, and a former member of APLM Council. She has published poetry
in many poetry journals, and her articles on social justice, AIDS, sexuality,
and liturgics have appeared in Christianity
and Crisis, The Witness, Episcopal Life, The Living Church, and Anglican Theological Review. She is
the author of the book Preaching
Creation, and Prayers for
Penitents from Cowley Publications, Simple Prayers for Complicated Lives, edited Ambassadors for God: Envisioning
Reconciliation Rites for the 21st Century (Liturgical Studies
Series,5) from CPI, and
is a major contributor to collections of prayers and liturgies now in use in
the Episcopal Church: Enriching Our
Worship series, and Gleanings:
Essays on Expansive Language with Prayers for Various Occasions,
(Meyers, Petingell, eds) both from Church Publishing.
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